Sunday, September 30, 2007

It is waaaaaay too early for this, but could the "upset" of SUI a few weeks ago be the passing of two programs on the line chart of success? Not that ISU's line is more than horizontal at best, but the folks out east are pointing way more down than sideways.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

A sign that the B12's TV deal stinks? Nebraska isn't on TV every week. Nebraska. Any league that signs a deal that doesn't allow its marquee teams on the telly every dang week shouldn't allow itself to be a league.

I understand why ISU isn't on much, and winning might fix that someday. But I think the Huskers have earned the privlidge of wall-to-wall TV.

Or put it this way: SUI's home game against Indiana is on, but Nebraska's game against ISU isn't. If you had the chance to sell ads for those games, which one would you pick? I thought so.

Friday, September 28, 2007

I agree that ISU's loss to UNI is not the B12's worst this year. UNI is a solid I-AA team, and nobody expected much from ISU this year. It happens. But a$m losing to Miami or Okie. St. losing to Troy look much worse based on what was expected from each school in August.

The new unis, with red helmets, regardless of logo, are sweet. USC-lite, sure, but so is the football. (Nice Photoshop work. Not)

Corn Nation brings up a point that is lost on most Husker and all SUI fans: Given the lack of football success the last 50 years in Ames, exactly 220 people should attend home games- the parents of each player. Make that 235, since the coaches would make their wives come to pad the total. Really. If Lincoln or Iowa City went on a walk of football futility like we have, they would average about 6,000 per game.

The question should never be: "Why doesn't ISU sell more football tickets?"; it should be "Why doesn't everyone else sell twice what they do now?"

Friday, September 21, 2007

Nothing will shut up SUI fan (OK, nothing will shut up SUI fan, but at least we will have valid ammo) about the SUI game being "ISU's Super Bowl" than ISU beating a team or two that is better than SUI in the same season that ISU beats SUI.

The last three wins against SUI proved to be ISU's "Best Win" of the year, '05 being a tossup.

Part of this list rises from how inept DM was against teams that finished the season with a winning record. Hayden had a horrid stretch against decent teams, too, and his teams went to a series of bowl during that run, so what the heck.

To turn it around, in three of those same years the loss to ISU was SUI's "worst loss":

-The Cyclones should never, ever take those throwback unis off. Petition the B12 to wear white at home. That was a moment where you caught lightening in a bottle, and now that you have it, lock it in. Those beautiful uniforms would be a perfect way to do it, too.

Plus, every time Iowa fan sees those unis, he will think back to the pain of yesterday. Hee hee.

-I guess "CanChizik.com" will have to delay their rollout a few weeks.

-KF may not put any extra emphasis on the ISU game, but his fan base clearly wants him to. They, fans of The Best Program To Never Win A National Title, are quite tired of losing to Silo Tech.

-I didn't see Randy P polling fans on their way out to see if they thought $90 was worth it in the end. Imagine that.

Now we understand Randy's mysterious post. Good research, Randy: "Hey- Any Iowa fans feeling they easy access to Hawkeye football being repressed? Anyone?"

So he found a bunch of SUI fans to bitch and moan about how they are being gouged this weekend, how $90 is more expensive than (implied) bigger matchups like Michigan-OSU, and how the new ticket policy will keep Trice a few thousand short of a full house this weekend.

Waahfreakin' waah.

First, folks bitch at ISU for not regularly selling out. Then they bitch when ISU cranks up they price for games that will sell out. Finally, they bitch because ISU won't gouge as many visiting fans as possible.

Maybe Jamie should have made the single game price for the SUI game $350, and thrown in the rest of the home schedule for free. But folks would have bitched about that as not showing respect to OU and UT.

Folks just like to bitch, especially SUI fans. No reason they are the most despised fan base in the Big 1011.

The Red Sox and Cubs have some of the most expensive tickets in baseball. Why? Perhaps their small stadiums have something to do with it. Michigan and OSU each host 100K for their big tilt. While the demand for that game may be bigger, so is the supply of tickets.

I chuckle at the Hard Core Capitalists I know who are the first to scream "Gouge!". If Jamie could charge $300 per ticket and sell out Trice once or twice a year, he would, and should. We need the cash.

Did it not occur to anyone that perhaps the $90 is to make the season ticket look that more attractive? Did it occur to anyone that sometimesit's not about the Hawks?

Keith Murphy agrees with me: (BTW- Nice Graphic, Keith. You look good in a wig.) The Chizik Era won't be a Instant Football Solution. We've got to be patient here. You may have been in the camp bitching for change since '03, and you got it. You may have been geeked on Gene's hire. But like Dan, there will be some on-the-job training, and progress will be in fits and starts. No serious evaluations until '09 at the earliest.

It's always darkest right before you get popped on the back of the head by a pipe wrench.